Techmeme: A Parkland shooting victim's parents created an AI version of their late son to speak about gun safety, starting with an interview with journalist Jim Acosta (Jon Blistein/Rolling Stone)

Top News

Taiwanese prosecutors say two ex-TSMC employees and a third suspect were arrested for allegedly stealing proprietary tech; investigators searched Tokyo Electron — Taiwanese prosecutors probe ‘potential trade secret leaks’ in first case since key technologies added to national security legislation

More: Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Notebookcheck, PC Gamer, UPI, Tom's Hardware, Reuters, Implicator.ai, Android Headlines, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, DigiTimes, MarketWatch, Focus Taiwan, The Register, and Tech in Asia

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:

Sources: TSMC fires several employees for violating rules on obtaining sensitive information about its 2nm tech; TSMC says it detected “unauthorized activities” — TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has fired several employees for violating rules …

More: The Record, 9to5Mac, Moneycontrol, AppleInsider, Reuters, CNBC, Apple Must, iClarified, TechSpot, The Information, Bloomberg, Fortune, Neowin, DigiTimes, Patently Apple, Benzinga, and Notebookcheck

Forums: r/apple and r/hardware

Bloomberg:

White House OSTP Director Michael Kratsios says the US is exploring software or physical ways to track the location of AI chips, as part of its AI Action Plan — The US is exploring ways to equip chips with better location-tracking capabilities, a senior official said …

More: Tom's Hardware, Financial Times, The Register, The Decoder, DigiTimes, Nikkei Asia, Tech in Asia, and PC Gamer

Bluesky: @sensehofstede.nl and @paleofuture

Wall Street Journal:

A draft White House EO shows President Trump plans to step up pressure against big banks over alleged discrimination against crypto companies and conservatives — The president is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week that targets so-called debanking of businesses including crypto companies

Sophia Fox-Sowell / StateScoop:

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a bill into law on August 1 banning the use of AI for mental health services, but allowing its use in administrative roles — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker approved a new law banning the use of artificial intelligence systems in providing psychotherapy services.

More: Mashable, Engadget, IDFPR, Tallahassee Democrat, and Chicago Sun Times

Bluesky: @thebluenami.is.democrat. Forums: Slashdot

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Google DeepMind releases its Genie 3 model, which can generate 3D worlds from a prompt and has enough visual memory for a few minutes of continuous interaction — AI world models have many limitations, but Genie 3 offers improvements like real-time interaction and better memory.

More: Google DeepMind, TechCrunch, The Guardian, Ars Technica, Engadget, TechEBlog, WinBuzzer, and Analytics India Magazine

X: @officiallogank, @sundarpichai, @parkerortolani, and @drjimfan. Forums: Hacker News

Lydia Beyoud / Bloomberg:

The CFTC is asking for public comment by August 18 about trading spot crypto asset contracts listed on CFTC-registered futures exchanges — Takeaways by Bloomberg AI — Hide … Tell us how AI is shaping your news experience. Share your feedback — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission …

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

The UK's Online Safety Act shows the UK prioritized government control over improving safety, becoming a cautionary tale for democracies regulating the internet — Well, well, well. The “age assurance” part of the UK's Online Safety Act has finally gone into effect, with its age checking …

More: Columbia Journalism Review, Tom's Guide, and The Guardian

Bluesky: @glynmoody, @jennykaynz, @werd.io, @mmasnick, and @gnomeicide

Forums: r/ukpolitics, r/technews, r/GreenAndPleasant, r/technology, r/KotakuInAction, and Beehaw

Ann-Marie Alcántara / Wall Street Journal:

Users say AI notetaking tools for meetings can misinterpret context when generating summaries or share content meant for a select audience with all participants — New note-taking software catches every word from your meetings—including the parts you didn't want the whole room to hear

Bluesky: @michae.lv and @hypervisible

Reuters:

Sources: Intel's 18A process is facing significant yield challenges, with only ~5% of chips meeting its specifications in late 2024 and ~10% by summer 2025 — The production process that Intel (INTC.O) hoped would pave the way to winning manufacturing deals and restore its edge in churning out high-end …

More: Benzinga, TechPowerUp, PC Gamer, Wall Street Pit, and WinBuzzer

Forums: r/hardware and r/intelstock

Tobias Mann / The Register:

Google signs a deal with two power utilities to lower its power use by pausing non-essential AI workloads during demand surges or weather-based grid disruptions — Google will pause non-essential AI workloads to protect power grids, the advertising giant announced on Monday.

More: TechRadar, The Keyword, PhoneArena, ITPro, The Decoder, WinBuzzer, Benzinga, Reuters, The Hill, and Latitude Media

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Forums: Slashdot

Kelly Lawler / USA Today:

Roku launches Howdy, an ad-free streaming service for $2.99 per month, initially only on Roku devices, with content from Lionsgate, WBD, FilmRise, and more — Roku is ready to say Howdy. — The company − which sells set-top streaming devices, smart TVs and has its own free …

Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg:

Netherlands-based dronemaker Destinus agrees to acquire Zurich-based Daedalean, which develops ML autopilot software for aviation, for ~$223M in cash and stock — Takeaways by Bloomberg AI — Hide … Tell us how AI is shaping your news experience. Share your feedback

More: Tech.eu, Sifted, and Tech in Asia

John Herrman / New York Magazine:

Search-engine optimization feels dated as marketers look to generative-engine optimization, or GEO, which focuses on tricking AI chatbots rather than Google — Search-engine optimization now feels dated. Generative-engine optimization is all about trying to trick AI chatbots.

More: Ars Technica, The Information, Street Fight, Implicator.ai, Social Media Today, Forbes, Domain Name Wire, and Search Engine Journal

Bluesky: @lindsaygoldwert, @reckless, and @jwherrman

X: @jessfraz and @venturetwins

See also Mediagazer

Jordan Novet / CNBC:

Figma's stock dropped 27.38% to $88.60 on August 4 after last week's IPO pop; its fully diluted valuation sits at ~$56B, still almost triple Adobe's 2022 offer — Figma shares dropped 27% on Monday, cutting into the gains the design software company posted after hitting the market last week.

More: Yahoo Finance, CNBC, and Yahoo Finance. Forums: r/StockMarket

Anthony Hughes / Bloomberg:

Source: Figma considered a higher IPO price, but CEO Dylan Field wanted to bring on board certain long-term institutional shareholders and approved $33/share

More: Motley Fool, Fortune, Fast Company, SiliconANGLE, Reuters, San Francisco Business Times, and Financial Times

X: @vishalkgupta, @j0hnwang, @breakingsaas, @j0hnwang, @geoffreywoo, and @bgurley

The Information:

Internal email: Cognition offers buyouts to its ~200 newly acquired Windsurf staff, with Cognition CEO Scott Wu writing “we don't believe in work-life balance” — Cognition, a two-year-old artificial intelligence coding startup last valued at $4 billion, has offered buyouts …

More: TechCrunch, The Information, and WinBuzzer

Bluesky: @edzitron.com. X: @theinformation and @lauramandaro. LinkedIn: Scott Johnson

Min Jeong Lee / Bloomberg:

Filings: SoftBank increased its Nvidia stake to ~$3B in Q1 and bought ~$330M worth of TSMC stock; source: Vision Fund monetized almost $2B of assets in H1 2025 — Takeaways by Bloomberg AI — Hide … Tell us how AI is shaping your news experience. Share your feedback

More: Tech in Asia

Bloomberg:

The US General Services Administration approves OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic for AI contracts with civilian federal agencies via its Multiple Award Schedule — The US government's central purchasing arm is adding OpenAI, Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Anthropic to a list of approved artificial …

More: TechCrunch, Livemint, Reuters, FedScoop, Mobile World Live, and Nextgov/FCW

Financial Times:

Sources: Core Scientific's hedge fund shareholders may reject CoreWeave's all-stock takeover, seeking better terms, as CRWV has fallen 30%+ post-announcement — Some investment funds may vote against deal unless protections are added to limit the potential downside — Unlock the Editor's Digest for free

More: Sherwood News, Reuters, and Yahoo Finance

Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal:

ElevenLabs launches Eleven Music, letting individuals and businesses use its AI model to generate music cleared for commercial use via English-language prompts — New model allows customers to create music with AI that is cleared for commercial use. But AI-generated music still faces legal battles and stiff opposition from artists.

More: TechCrunch, Implicator.ai, Shelly Palmer, Music Business Worldwide, and WinBuzzer

Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch:

Spend management startup Alaan raised a $48M Series A led by Peak XV, one of the Middle East's largest Series A rounds for a fintech, after a $2.5M seed in 2021 — When Parthi Duraisamy was a consultant at McKinsey's Dubai office, he discovered that the American Express cards his company relied …

More: The Economic Times, Implicator.ai, Wamda, and Bloomberg

Globes:

Israeli quantum computing startup QuamCore raised a $26M Series A led by Sentinel, taking its total funding to $35M, and plans to move into chip fabrication — The company has developed a fully designed and simulated architecture capable of scaling to 1 million qubits in a single cryostat.

More: Finextra, FinSMEs, CTech, HPCwire, and Tech Funding News

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:

Uzbek fintech and e-commerce company Uzum raised $65.5M led by Tencent and VR Capital at a ~$1.5B valuation, up from $1.16B in March 2024 after a $114M Series A — At a time when the world feels increasingly divided between East and West, Uzbekistan has emerged as a rare middle ground …

More: Bloomberg, PitchBook, FinSMEs, The Korea Herald, FinTech Global, Tech Funding News, and Finextra

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